In India, on the other hand, the forging tradition was dominant. In the 4th century AD, the Gupta king Chandra II erected a gigantic iron pillar to honor Garuda, Vishnus representative. The pillar still stands in a courtyard outside Delhi. It is 7 m (22 feet) tall, weighs six tons, and is made of iron so pure (99.72%) that it has not rusted in the 1600 years it has been exposed to the weather. This is the largest piece of forged iron that has survived from ancient times, and must have been made by heating and hammering together hundreds of iron ingots. Take that, Statue of Liberty, you green behemoth. (btw, i just read this aloud to my dad and recorded it with my new voice recorder, so i might upload that soon -- its nearly an hour long, and i kinda sound like Carl Sagan due to how carefully and intensely i enunciate my words)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 02:27:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015